Crews responded to a fire in Market Square, Saffron Walden, after receiving multiple 999 calls just before lunchtime.

Reports suggested that people might be missing in three flats located above a café bar. Thankfully, bar staff acted quickly to evacuate the premises.

Fire engines from Saffron Walden, Newport and Stansted were called to the scene. Essex Police and the East of England Ambulance Service, including their Hazardous Area Response Team (HART), also attended to support at the scene.

Crews have urged residents to make sure their hobs are clear after a kitchen fire in Chelmsford today.

We were called to a property in Lodge Avenue, Great Baddow at 2.38pm when the occupant heard a smoke alarm and discovered a fire in the kitchen. 

Firefighters found the kitchen filled with smoke and extinguished the fire on the hob.

Watch Manager Andy Edwards said: "The electric cooker had been turned on accidentally and set fire to an air fryer which had been left on the hob.

Crews responded to a house in Wharf Close, Stanford-le-Hope, this morning after residents noticed smoke coming from their kitchen and called 999.

Upon arrival, firefighters discovered a kitchen fire and smoke throughout the house. They quickly extinguished the fire, which had started from a pan left on the hob, and ventilated the property to clear the smoke.

The family received treatment at the scene for smoke inhalation.

Watch Manager Ben Stapleton said: